Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Wednesday that Meta will pay the state more than $1 billion and implement new protections for children and teenagers using its social media platforms.
The settlement requires Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to adopt stricter age verification measures and place new limits on how teenagers can use its platforms.
Under the agreement, teens will be limited to two hours of use per day. Notifications will also be turned off by default during school hours, and Meta will create a nighttime mode designed to restrict teens’ access to its platforms, according to a news release from Paxton’s office.
“It is my mission to fundamentally change and strengthen the standards for child safety online, and this settlement is a major step forward in the fight to ensure our kids are protected online,” Paxton said.
The Texas agreement comes as Meta has tentatively agreed to a much larger settlement in a separate case involving 33 states. Texas was not part of that lawsuit.
Meta has tentatively agreed to pay $17 billion to resolve that case, bringing an end to the ongoing trial. The agreement represents the first settlement of its scale involving a social media company.
Wednesday’s announcement also marks the second time in roughly two years that Meta has agreed to pay Texas more than $1 billion to resolve a lawsuit brought by the state.
In 2024, Meta agreed to pay Texas $1.4 billion to settle allegations that the company improperly collected and used the biometric data of millions of Texans without their authorization.
That agreement was the largest settlement ever obtained from an action brought by a single state under its privacy laws at the time.
